Evidence for God in Morality Archives

October 2, 2024October 1, 2024

Suicide Prevention Services

September 2024 was “National Suicide Prevention and Awareness Month.” Data on suicides among young people ages 15 to 24 is alarming. A group called Samaritans has provided suicide prevention services in Massachusetts for 50 years, and they released data for that state. They reported 596 suicide deaths in 2021, but since March of 2022, 3800 young people have accessed the Samaritan’s “Hey Sam” text line. They have volunteers in the 15 to 24 age bracket trained to dialogue with their peers struggling with thoughts of suicide.

It is good that individuals and organizations are attempting to provide suicide prevention services, but the Church needs to pay more attention to the needs of young people. Too many congregations assume that their role is entertaining young people rather than opening dialogues about our purpose in life and the importance of faith when life is rough. The “Does God Exist?” ministry offers free videos online, free postage-paid correspondence courses, and class teaching materials to assist the Church in providing answers to questions young people ask. We also welcome questions that we answer privately and online.

As the world plunges deeper into naturalism, greed, humanism, atheism, the break up of family, and denial of purpose for our existence, we can expect more frustration in the minds of young people. Some kids survive in spite of us, but suicide prevention services can’t address the needs of all kids. Jesus gave a pattern for life in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, and His teachings make sense to thinking young people. What they see in world leaders does not.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Information from USA Today Network-New England. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and the National Alliance on Mental Health provide phone and online help. You can dial 988 or online chat988lifeline.org. The Samaritans phone number, 877-870-4673, is available 24/7 for calls or text messages.

October 1, 2024September 29, 2024

Transgender Inmates

The rights of male prisoners who declare their “gender identity” is now female has raised new problems for those managing prisons. California, Massachusetts, and Connecticut have laws that allow transgender inmates to request transfer to prisons that match their sexual preferences. This results in male prisoners being transferred to women’s prisons simply by declaring that they are now women.

The California prison system has received 261 applications from intersex, non-binary, and transgender inmates to transfer to different prisons. In addition to transgender men requesting transfer to women’s prisons, transgender women have reportedly suffered sexual violence in men’s prisons. In California, a third of those seeking transfer are registered sex offenders. Female prisoners in Washington state and Pennsylvania have filed lawsuits against prisons allowing sexual harassment by transgender felons.

We see huge collateral damage from allowing a change in God’s design for males and females. The United States makes a significant effort to protect the rights of all citizens, but conflict results when the rights of trans citizens violate the rights of non-trans citizens. This problem goes beyond transgender inmates in prisons.

Government-sanctioned immorality has also affected college students who cannot have a dorm free of members of the opposite birth gender. Female high school girls cannot have a bathroom or locker room free of males who have gained admission to these facilities simply by claiming to be women. Competitive athletics has a growing number of trans females who are born males and are reducing the rights of girls to have success as athletes.

The aggressive action of the LGBTQ movement in America has moved the government to allow all of these abuses. We can’t ignore God’s design of male and female bodies without the kind of abuse we are seeing. Christ would have us treat those with gender problems with love, kindness, respect, and attention to their needs, but blind acceptance of all claimed transgender desires means others will suffer the loss of their rights.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
References: National Review and The Week for Sept 6/13, 2024, page 12.

September 24, 2024September 23, 2024

Addictions Are Linked to Trauma

One of the significant symptoms of today’s decadent society is the massive amount of addiction we see in all age groups, races, and nationalities. Addiction treatment experts have been unsuccessful in dealing with addiction because they have not addressed the root causes of addiction. It is becoming more evident that all kinds of addictions are linked to trauma people have experienced.

Statistics show that more than 40% of people with opioid addiction report some type of childhood abuse or neglect. Of addicted women, 41% report having been subjected to childhood sexual abuse. Other studies have shown that at least 85% of all people who have an addiction have had at least one adverse childhood experience, and the risk increases with each additional experience. There is also a high correlation between PTSD and addiction, with 58% of PTSD sufferers having a substance abuse addiction.

All of the drug therapies and socialization efforts we can offer do not undo the past. We will never stop wars as long as greed and selfishness dominate and humans practice survival of the fittest. Addictions are linked to trauma, and this is where authentic Christianity (not denominational religion) can make a difference. The biblical design of the nuclear family is the best tool we have for most of addiction’s challenges.

Ephesians 5:21-6:4 speaks of submitting to one another in the fear of God. Husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the Church, and love them as they love their own body. Wives are told to respect their husbands. Fathers are to bring up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Colossians 3:21 warns fathers not to provoke their children to anger. As people base their conduct on skepticism, atheism, and naturalism, we can expect addictions to increase.

Following the teachings of Jesus Christ is not only a key to eternal life but also to life on Earth, free of the addictions linked to trauma. Chemicals cannot help people find meaning and purpose in life, but Christ and His Church can.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: “New Treatments Address Addiction alongside Trauma” by Maia Szalavitz in Scientific American magazine for October 2024, pages 45-51

September 6, 2024September 5, 2024

Alcohol Damages the Human Body

In recent years, an interesting change has taken place in the public’s reaction to smoking. When I was a child, I remember that nearly all adults smoked, and so did many teenagers. Smoking bans are enforced in many places because medical science has proven smoking’s adverse health effects. People have recognized that they should avoid smoking. Now, we have medical evidence that alcohol damages the human body, and people need to acknowledge that.

Dr. Douglas Zipes is an internationally acclaimed cardiologist, professor, author, inventor, and authority on pacing and electrophysiology (heart rhythms). He pointed out the similarities between the medical data for alcohol and cigarettes. He wrote that no amount of alcohol is beneficial, and any amount of alcohol is harmful to your heart and other organs.

Alcohol (ethanol) as a drug is very destructive to humans. It is disturbing that the music industry, especially country music, has glorified alcohol consumption. We all experience enormous pressure to drink at parties and celebrations. Drunkenness is often a joke in movies and television shows, and it is the punchline in many songs. My personal experience has been that alcohol is a family destroyer. Cocktail hour was a significant part of my parent’s life. I would usually hide because I knew the result of their drinking. My college roommate drank until it got him kicked out. My younger brother drank until it killed him.

I got in trouble as a chemistry teacher when I pointed out to my students that “intoxicated” refers to the toxic nature of alcohol. Still, it is true that alcohol damages the human body. Christians believe that the body is the dwelling place of God’s spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 3:16.) Comparisons between today’s alcoholic beverages and the wine of Christ’s day show a sharp contrast. Distillation was not available in Jesus’ day, so the alcohol content was much lower, and alcohol served to make the water potable. Today, the higher alcohol concentrations make it a recreational drug that tears up families, destroys marriages, and is now known to damage the body.

Like smoking, alcohol is ingrained in our culture. It will be an uphill battle to get people to understand that taking care of themselves includes not using a substance that has no benefit for our bodies and even damages them. Christians must take the lead in the long battle to at least moderate the consumption of alcohol and someday eliminate it.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: Dr. Douglas Zipes in the Saturday Evening Post for September/October 2024, page 54

August 30, 2024August 27, 2024

Dinosaur Fossils and Human Values

By the end of July 2024, I had personally received 98 written requests for financial help to address human needs. That is in addition to numerous phone calls and emails, and I am sure most of the needs are real. Pathetic pictures of starving children, people needing medical attention, and people victimized by war and greed tug at the heartstrings, but on a teacher’s pension, I cannot solve all of these issues. At the same time, we live in a world of corruption and badly distorted values, as demonstrated by the price of dinosaur fossils.

The largest and most complete stegosaurus fossil ever found was sold to a private collector for $44,600,000. A “mystery buyer” paid $12.4 million for a velociraptor skeleton, and in 2020, a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as Stan sold for $31,800,000. While the academic community laments that these skeletons are lost to science, the more significant issue is what the price of dinosaur fossils says about human values. The Christian concept of love expressed by the Greek word “agape” permeates the teachings of Christ, but today, people vilify Christianity and ridicule the plea to love one another.

The media takes great delight in stories of the abuses of some who have claimed to be Christians. Sadly, some religious leaders spend massive amounts of money on religious structures, airplanes, cars, and personal homes, as non-believers spend excessive amounts on dinosaur fossils and entertainment.

Most of the people feeding needy children are motivated by their understanding of Jesus’ teachings. Digging wells so people aren’t forced to drink polluted water is almost entirely the work of people who express their faith in Christ and His teachings. Many followers of Jesus quietly take what little they have and use it to relieve human suffering.

In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus indicates how God looks at our situation. Dedicated Christians who have the hope of eternal life prioritize addressing human needs. Those who use what God has loaned them to have a dinosaur skeleton in their private collection will learn that their lives are just as dead as the dinosaurs on which they spent their resources.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: The money paid for dinosaur fossils is in The Week for August 2, 2024, page 11.

August 27, 2024August 26, 2024

Medical Aid in Dying and Hospice Care

One of the many issues involved in the advancement of modern medicine is what to do when a person is slowly dying and has no quality of life. Should a lethal injection be given to end their struggle? “Medical aid in dying,” or MAiD, has been accepted in Europe, Canada, and other places. As expected, there have been abuses, and for that reason, the European Court of Human Rights recently ruled that access to assisted suicide is not a human right.

Contrastingly, the Human Population Group has promoted assisted suicide and has had success in getting various American states to accept it. Now, the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA) has announced a policy change that allows hospice nurses to participate in assisted suicide under the MAiD euphemism. The statement reads: “Nursing care for patients considering MAiD and their families is crucial to ensure that patients and families are not overtly or inadvertently disenfranchised or stigmatized as they proceed with MAiD and that they experience a safe and comfortable death, free from complications.”

This is a highly complex issue. Keeping someone alive when there is no hope of survival and no quality of life can be very expensive. Do you wipe out your loved one’s financial resources by continuing life in these situations? When a person has Alzheimer’s and doesn’t know anyone but is otherwise healthy, do you administer assisted suicide if they had requested it when they were rational? These issues touch many of us and will increase as our population ages.

Proponents of medical aid in dying argue that since we euthanize animals when they are suffering, we should extend that same option to humans. One prominent supporter of medically assisted suicide is Peter Singer, who is the DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer would not only support medical aid in dying but would require the euthanization of prisoners who have life sentences and mentally ill patients who are beyond help.

For Christians, there are grave concerns with medically assisted suicide. In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, we read, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God has His home in you? If any man ruins the temple of God, God shall ruin him, for the temple of God is sacred, and that is what you are.” When hospice nurses are allowed to administer “medical aid in dying,” how long will it be before they are required to do so regardless of their religious and ethical objections?

There are no easy answers for any of us in this issue, but it seems that with modern medicine and technology, there should be an option other than giving a human a lethal injection to end their lives.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: The Life Legal Defense Foundation publication Lifeline for Summer 2024, pages 6-7.

August 19, 2024August 18, 2024

Medication Abortion In Reality

Medication abortion is a two-drug cocktail that ends the life of the developing child during the first trimester of pregnancy. It is essential for women considering medication abortion to know what it does and its side effects.

The first pill is mifepristone/RU-486, which prevents the pre-born baby from receiving hormonal support (progesterone) essential for the baby to develop. The second pill (misoprostol) causes the uterus to contract and expel the baby. The process is painful for the woman.

The Mayo Clinic says the side effects include vomiting, fever, nausea, chills, diarrhea, and headache. Women may need painkillers to manage pain after a medication abortion. The Mayo Clinic also says that a woman undergoing a pill-induced medication abortion needs access to emergency services. Complications include hemorrhaging and infection. A 17-year study showed that of 423,000 abortions, there were 121,283 confirmed emergency room visits within 30 days.

When humans interfere with God’s design, there are always problems, and the miracle of conception and birth is a design that works. Medication abortions are a disaster in too many cases to be a reasonable alternative. The writer of Psalms 139:13-14 said it well: “For you, God, possessed my inmost being, you covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise you, God, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are your works..”

Note: The 2024 Democratic National Convention is this week in Chicago, and one of the features being offered is free chemical abortions from a mobile clinic operated by Planned Parenthood.

August 7, 2024August 6, 2024

Blaming God for the Problems of Today

People are often blaming God for the problems of today. That shows a misunderstanding of who God is and what He does. In Matthew 24:4-13, Jesus described what we see today. He said, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things will happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom…” The things Jesus described are happening today, and they are caused by humans.

In the Old Testament, God handled rebellion by removing His protective hand from His people. In New Testament times, the events leading to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. were the result of military actions by humans. In today’s world, God is not causing Putin to attack Ukraine or Hamas and Hezbollah to attack Israel. God did not cause COVID. It is unreasonable to expect God to step in to stop human greed and selfishness, and He should not be expected to prevent the results of sexual practices He warned humans not to avoid.

God’s promise to Christians is that eventually, He will do away with all of the consequences of human selfishness and greed. That even includes the pain and suffering we all endure in this physical life. Revelation 21:1-7 pictures this beautifully, describing the creation of the New Heaven and New Earth: “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and He will live with them… He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” It’s time to quit blaming God for the problems of today and turn to Christ to receive the joy of life now and hope for the future.

August 6, 2024August 6, 2024

The Tip of a Boulder

Several years ago, I was mowing the grass at our meeting house and noticed a rock sticking up where I intended to mow. The mower blade nicked it when I went over it. Our members had been taking turns mowing, and I wondered why no one had bothered to move the rock. I asked the maintenance guy if it was okay if I dug the rock out and filled the hole with dirt so we wouldn’t keep hitting it. He just smiled and said, “Have at it.” I learned that the “rock” was the tip of a boulder.

Here in Michigan, we have rocks and boulders carried in by glaciers in the past. When I went to work with the shovel, I learned this was more of a job than I thought. By the time I got to the bottom of the boulder, I had dug an enormous hole and needed to use my truck to pull it out of the hole.

This story reminds me of people. I recently talked with a neighbor about a neighborhood issue and noticed a tear rolling down his cheek and a clenched fist at his side. Our conversation stopped, and I asked him if he was okay. I learned that his wife had just left him for another man, and the neighborhood issue was just the tip of the boulder he was dealing with.

In 1 Corinthians 5, we read about a congregation where one member was cohabiting with his father’s wife (not his mother). The congregation not only tolerated the situation but was “puffed up,” meaning they were laughing it off. That sin was a rock everyone could see, and Paul said that even the pagans could see it. The rest of the letter in 1 Corinthians shows a boulder of problems. In chapter 11, verses 18-30, we read of division, selfishness, drunkenness, and a bunch of people who were ”weak and sickly.”

In America today, we have violent protests, corruption in our government, racism, profanity in our movies and music, and no fixed standard of morality. Those are just the tip of a boulder that has become very large. Even many churches have become entertainment venues instead of promoters of God’s will. This is the tip of a boulder that is a lack of belief in God and in the Bible as a guiding force for life. You can’t read Galatians 3:28 or study John 4:5-43 and not see that God calls us to be one in Him.

John the Baptist said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Get ready for the coming of the Lord” (John 1:23). This ministry is saying very much the same thing. We urge the world to understand that we are on a road to disaster. The rocks of division, immorality, and war are just the tip of a boulder that must be removed.

August 5, 2024August 3, 2024

Tumbleweed Life

One of the most ingenious methods of spreading seeds in the natural world is the design and function of the tumbleweed. These plants exist in dry places where there is a lot of wind. The tumbleweed life is challenging.

The tumbleweed design deals with two big problems. The first is that the plant must be structured so that the part of the plant with the seeds has a low mass so the wind can move it. The second requirement is that the framework holding the seeds must be designed to attach to something in a place where the seeds can germinate.

If you have been around tumbleweeds, you know not to grab them or allow them to bump into you. The tumbleweed’s framework is covered with sharp edges, so once it strikes something, it stays put until the seeds are dispersed and the rainy season has started.

The typical design of plants involves seeds or roots being planted in soil and drawing nourishment to produce leaves, blooms, and fruit. In arid desert areas, fertile soil is a rarity, yet tumbleweeds, with their unique design, continue to thrive, overcoming this significant challenge.

In human relationships, we can draw a parallel. Some people live a tumbleweed life with sharp edges and no roots. They exist in empty spaces, hurting anyone they touch. This destructive nature of a ‘tumbleweed life’ underscores the importance of being rooted in the positive values of Christ and His teachings. Not putting down roots is a sure way to tumble, and rooting oneself in Christ can provide the stability and the best that life has to offer.